To get the most out of a film, Hornaday argues, viewers need to be as actively engaged in watching it as the filmmakers were in creating it. Film critic for The Washington Post, Hornaday guides us through the movie-making process and shows how to break down a film into its seven fundamental parts. For each component—screenplay, acting, production design, cinematography, editing, sound and music, and direction—she suggests key questions to ask and draws examples from a wide range of classic and recent films in all genres.

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